Welcome to NASWeb

We're the largest shortwave-only radio enthusiasts club in North America.

Welcome to NASWeb, the web site of NASWA, the North American Shortwave Association. We have been active in the business of sharing information about shortwave radio since 1961. We focus on domestic and international broadcasts on shortwave frequencies between 2 and 30 MHz. We are the premiere organization in North America for shortwave listeners and DXers. We sponsor the popular yearly Winter SWL Fest, where monitoring hobbyists of all stripes, from DC to daylight, gather for a weekend of cameraderie and talk about radio. Our club motto is “Unity and Friendship.”

The Journal

NASWA members receive The Journal, a printed monthly digest of the latest logs and news about shortwave radio, as well as various feature articles and columns. Samples of columns from The Journal are available on this site. Members can also subscribe to our weekly e-mail DX tip sheet, Flashsheet for no additional charge. NASWA’s Flashsheet comes out every Sunday, filled with the latest loggings and tips from NASWA members.

Winter SWL Fest

If you haven't been to a NASWA Winter SWL Fest before, what are you waiting for? The Fest happens every March in beautiful Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, about a half-hour north of Philadelphia. At a typical Fest, between 150 and 250 dedicated radio hobbyists get together to meet with old friends and make new ones. Friday and Saturday are filled with informative sessions by some of the top names in the hobby covering a wide variety of topics, from longwave to microwave and beyond. The weekend is well-lubricated with tuning oil, and a good time is had by all.

Registration forms typically run in several hobby publications, including the NASWA Journal, NRC DX News, ODXA Listening In, and CIDX Messenger. The form is also available starting a few months before the Fest at the Fest web site. And if you want to relive the Fest experience year 'round, or just get to know some of your fellow attendees online before your first visit, you can join the Winter SWL Fest mailing list.

Radio Monitoring The How To Guide

Long time NASWA member Skip Arey has generously offered to make his hobby classic, Radio Monitoring The How To Guide, available under a Creative Commons license for anyone to download and read. Skip has long had a passion for educating newcomers to the hobby, and his book is well worth the read. Thanks, Skip!

NASWA Country List

NASWA maintains what is widely considered throughout North America as the definitive list of countries from which shortwave broadcasts have originated. Many hobbyists like to count how many countries they've heard broadcasts from.

The NASWA Radio Country List is unique. It considers the interests of the longtime listener who has heard and counted some radio countries which, in the political world, no longer exist. Even if war or revolution, conquest or annexation, split-up or merger, change the world map, the listener need not subtract these politically defunct countries from his or her tally.

The interests of the person who began listening much more recently also are taken into consideration. That person can count loggings of stations in countries which, politically, are extinct. This seems fair to all. After all, reception of shortwave stations is not directly linked to such matters as political boundaries or independence dates.

In Memory of NASWA Publisher Bill Oliver

NASWA publisher Bill Oliver died of a heart attack on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 in Lower Bucks Hospital. Bill was 89 years old. Bill published The Journal of the North American Shortwave Association and The Lowdown for the Long Wave Club of America. He had taught computer classes at Bristol Township Senior Center.

The club’s management team thanks everyone for their sympathy and support. Our new publisher is Rich Cuff, and our new address is P. O. Box 3292, Allentown, PA 18106.